SUEZ runs, rides and rows to Rio in national fundraising bid

Employees of SUEZ recycling and recovery UK aim to raise thousands of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support this summer by running, rowing and riding the distance from London to Rio de Janeiro.

The Rio Roadshow, which takes place between 20 June 2016 and 22 July 2016, will see hundreds of SUEZ employees across the country participate in sponsored sporting challenges – each aimed at covering as many miles as possible to contribute to the 5,761 mile distance between London and Rio.

A special “carnival bus”, decked out with exercise equipment, will travel to 130 of SUEZ’s locations over the five-week period in a continuous “roadshow” – starting in Inverness, Scotland, and finishing in St Erth, Cornwall.

Participants at each location will seek individual sponsorship to rack up as many miles as they can on the equipment before the bus moves on, although they can also contribute miles accrued doing other sponsored activities – which so far include serious endurance tests, such as a 70-mile “ultra-marathon” and a hike across the Glens of Scotland.

For those seeking an extra challenge and to help really cover some ground, there will be a competitive element too, with numerous individual and team competitions taking place within the event.

SUEZ will also hold a nation-wide raffle for all of its employees and has donated a top prize of a trip for two to Brazil, while many of the company’s generous suppliers, customers and partners have donated other great raffle prizes.

Vehicle supplier MAN Truck & Bus UK Ltd, which supplies many of SUEZs heavy goods and plant vehicles, has kindly provided a HGV tractor unit for the duration of the event, while trailer supplier Acquila, has provided a plush hospitality trailer to host the exercise equipment, which was refitted and serviced by Truck Engineering.

S&B Commercials PLC has also kindly donated a smaller second vehicle which can access SUEZ sites that are too small to accommodate the bigger carnival bus.

The event follows on from the success of SUEZ’s first major charity sporting event, The Big Ride, in 2014, which raised in excess of £50,000 and saw SUEZ employees cycle, in a relay, approximately 2,200 miles across the country between SUEZ locations.

SUEZ has set itself a goal of raising at least £75,000 from the Rio Roadshow, through individual participant sponsorship, raffle ticket sales and supporting activities arranged at each site, such as competitions, fancy-dress and bake sales.

“In 2014, we managed to raise over £100,000 for Macmillan and most of that was generated by The Big Ride event, which was fantastically well received by our employees and clients.

We wanted to do something similarly sporting this year, which would involve as many of our 5,500 employees as possible. However, with it being an Olympic year, the event had to have an Olympic theme, so we set ourselves the ambitious target of ‘getting to Rio’ – covering nearly 6,000 miles by human power alone.

I would like to thank all of the sponsors who have generously contributed to make this event happen, and really believe we can exceed the high fundraising benchmark we set in 2016.”

Corporate Partnerships Manager at Macmillan, Rhys Parker, said:

“More than two million people are currently living with or beyond cancer, and that number is set to rise to four million by 2030 and almost one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime. It’s the toughest fight most people will ever have to face, but they don’t have to go through it alone as Macmillan is there to support them.

We’re delighted and extremely grateful that SUEZ and their employees continue to support Macmillan as their charity partner and hope everyone at SUEZ gets involved with this year’s event to raise much needed funds for the millions of people affected by cancer”.